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When I was there in December last year I just brought a hoodie(with a long sleeve shirt under) That was perfect for me. If you get cold easily...maybe a north face shell, its not bulky but warm. As far as my kids, I did the same for them(hoodie and long sleeve) some nights they wore a hat and if they got very cold, I always had a blanket to cover them with in the stroller.

Our standard is 4 items per person: a fleece jacket, a windbreaker with a hood, a pr. of thin silk long underwear, and light gloves. We find that layering these is normally sufficient as long as you have long trousers and some closed-toe shoes for nippy days.

PS: Do remember that Orlando is not Miami; it can and sometimes does experience hard freezes, and on a WDW trip you are going to be in windy situations outdoors at night. Thus the thin long underwear: normally I wouldn't need that at home, but when it is 30F outside and you are sitting on metal grandstands, your legs can get cold even with long trousers.

Minnesotan conditioning situations aside ;-), it is normal in winter for nighttime temps in Central Florida to be 30-40 degrees colder than daytime temps. One day last week the 6 am temp was 37F, by 9 am it was 62F, at noon it was 77F, and at 10 pm it was 40F. The wind that day varied from 7-23 mph as a front moved through.

FWIW, at this time of year the parks all sell fleece blankets for those people who pack nothing but shorts and tees with them. One size fits all, I guess. I saw several people getting on the bus in the morning wrapped up in those blankets.

Ha! We all took coats, gloves and I even took a scarf thinking it would get cold at night. They never left the suitcase. The most any of us wore was a sweatshirt. We were there the first week of December.

I think it depends on where your from and what your used to. It's -4 Celsius here, I might feel that it's warmer there than someone from a warmer climate. We normally travel in Feb. Layers are the way to go. I usually bring the "fall" jackets. Waterproof, fleece lined jackets. I bring some thin gloves for night time and hats ( all that we would bring from the jaunt from the airport. Layers as usually the afternoons warm up quite nicely.

We're leaving in 2 weeks. We all have fleece jackets to wear down there, but since we'll be driving from MD, we'll have our winter coats with us. I have some relatives who just got back and in their pictures on Facebook they were mostly in jeans and t-shirts and a few in sweatshirts or fleece. Several years ago we were in FL in December. The forecasts said 70s so I packed for 70s and it was in the 50s and rainy. I froze. It seems like you need to be prepared for anything.

When I was there last January I brought a fleece for the mornings/night. I never took it out of my backpack. The 50 degree weather felt just fine to me- way better than the below zero weather Wisconsin had that week!

I will still pack the fleece for when we go again in a few weeks just incase it gets cooler...

We've been in January twice, and we'll be there in 2 weeks again. The first time it never got above 60 (major cold snap), but I do have pics of my DH and DS (9) in shorts - they are warm blooded! DS(6) is always freezing and he was layered in long sleeves, thermals, winter jacket hat and gloves almost every day. Next trip it was mid-60's to mid-80's and we hardly ever wore jackets (besides DS). I wore a sweatshirt some mornings, but it warmed up by about 10:30. Most days I was fine with a long sleeve layered over a short sleeve until mid morning.

This trip I am planning on bringing a fleece lined shell, a lighter sweatshirt, and a light long sleeve that I can layer. And hats and gloves just in case!

Personally _ I would prefer to have warmer layers that are never used rather than have to leave the park early from being too cold.

That said, I watched the forecast carefully and brought last January for my whole family sherpa-lined heavy hoodies. I also bought some for my nephews, niece for xmas and they brought them. We ended up using them on about 3 - 4 days of a weeklong trip (for much of the day - likely tied them around our waist for the warmest sunniest parts of the day). 2 of our days we got lucky and it was WARMMMM...and I was a bit disappointed we didn't pack any shorts - but we were fine in jeans and t-shirts those 2 days. We even managed to swim 3 of the days there - which was a nice bonus. I didn't count on that.

After Dec 2010...where we saw temps as low as the 20s (teens the day before we checked in) and highs up to around 75...we learned that winter at WDW means bring a little of everything. I usually try to layer the kids (and myself) so we're not dealing with heavy coats, but if the temps dip-- you'll regret not packing that coat, gloves, scaves, etc. You also have to consider the windchill. We hit a lot of wind in the World Showcase, MSUSA can turn into a bit of a wind tunnel, and if you take any of the boats...it can be downright freezing on those docks.

Our usual vacation time is January. Being from Chicago, on our first trip we thought we could handle any cold snap Florida could throw at us. WRONG. Our first day we were wearing shorts the next it dropped in the 30's to record lows. We threw on everything in our suitcase that trip because we we freezing. The gift shops sold out of sweatshirts, hats, gloves, everything. Learned pretty quickly for the next trip to throw in a Sherpa hoodie and even a pair of light gloves.

PS: Do remember that Orlando is not Miami; it can and sometimes does experience hard freezes, and on a WDW trip you are going to be in windy situations outdoors at night. Thus the thin long underwear: normally I wouldn't need that at home, but when it is 30F outside and you are sitting on metal grandstands, your legs can get cold even with long trousers.

Ha! We all took coats, gloves and I even took a scarf thinking it would get cold at night. They never left the suitcase. The most any of us wore was a sweatshirt. We were there the first week of December.

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Whereas in '09 (if I remember reports correctly) and '10 it was literally freezing. DH never even wears long pants until it's below 32 here at home, but he was nearly in tears from the wet wind coming off the lake while watching Illuminations. We had a horrid watching spot because we were scouring the shops until the last second trying to find a knit hat that would fit his noggin (never did). It was SO cold Dec 2010, and since ours was a longer trip and it started a few days into the trip getting colder and colder, AND because we just didn't think it would happen since it had happened the year before, we were horribly unprepared. We couldn't easily buy new clothes because we were both in sizes too large for most of the clothes in the giftshops, and I was in major denial about that, and DH just didn't want to pay the Casual Male prices for a good coat. (and we didn't even think about long underwear)

I would bring lots of layers, and make sure that you have access to, or can go buy, a good coat just in case it freezes again. WDW is surrounded by water, and cold wind goes over that water and can just chill you to the bone.